I went walking along the beach at night, a number of times this week. And as always, I walked free. It was as if I owned the beach. Twice I walked alone, and twice my wife walked beside me. Night beach walking is a low tide activity for me. By Friday night, the beach walking will likely come to an end for a while.
Daytime beach walks are done during low tide. When the tide is out, the beach averages from 70 to 200 metres in depth, just the way I like it when we pass the cabanas, the beach bars, the scattered beach homes, and three small communities that line the edge of the sand during our typical 10 km walks.
A second consideration for me to walk when the tide is low, is that near the end of our walk, at least during weekdays, I want to have enough distance from the water to the edge to be less noticeable when I take time to sunbathe. Since it isn’t exactly legal to sunbathe nude in Ecuador, I have to be somewhat discrete.
Now saying that, I know that the rare person who sees me, while walking or cycling passed me in the heat of the afternoon. Since I am just sunbathing, there is no offence taken, at least as far as I know. I guess that you could say, that in these instances, I am normalising naturism. I’m not hiding, nor am I drawing a lot of attention to myself just because I am nude. The key is to sunbathe no differently than if wearing shorts or a bathing suit.
A few days ago, I was laying there, on my stomach, while one older gentleman who cycles past my wife and I on our daily walks on most days, cycled past me. I was aware of his passing, as I am aware of anyone who passes relatively closely. He stopped about 50 metres away and took out his beach towel to sunbathe. Naturally, he kept his shorts on. Yesterday, we met as I was getting ready to cross the river that is near the edge of our town. He wondered if he could sunbathe near me, saying he had seen me sunbathe while nude. Of course, I agreed. I had no reason to protest.
Today, he appeared as I was sunbathing, with my backside against the beach blanket. He kept his shorts on, a speedo bathing suit actually, and that was okay. He talked and I listened with only a few words to add. It was all so normal as if one of us being naked and the other not, didn’t factor into the equation.
I guess, this is what happens when people get a positive sense of each other over time, before confronted with nudity. Nudity is secondary to being a known and friendly person. Nudity is perceived as perhaps an eccentric’s privilege that doesn’t threaten.